History Today April 2020

HAVE you any idea why there are 360 degrees in a circle, rather than, say, 100 or some other round number?
Issue 4 of volume 70 of History Today has the answer, along with other interesting articles on the Roman Inquisition, the foundation of Liberia and Charles I's early fractured realm.
The cover story is about a female Soviet WW2 sniper with 309 claimed kills - a claim that is not seriously looked at.

Femme fatale .. Soviet sniper

Instead we learn about Lyudmila Pavlichenko's propaganda tour of the West, particularly how the media reacted to her - part of a tendency for the magazine to prioritise social history.
Still, all in all I found this edition of History Today to be a compelling if light read.